2009 December
‘New’ Fletcher Hanks story discovered
Panel from Hanks' 'Moe M. Down'
It was assumed that the two Fantagraphics collections — I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets and You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation — contained all existing stories by Fletcher Hanks, the obscure and eccentric Golden Age artist whose work has been rediscovered thanks to the efforts of editor Paul Karasik and others. Now, Seattle-based comics writer Frank Young has found two previously lost tales by Hanks from two issues of Great Comics, circa 1941. And no less an authority than Karasik has come forward (in the comments section) to confirm that yes, they are indeed by Hanks:
Not that anyone cares but me…BUT….I spent a looong time looking at these pages again today and have come to the conclusion that they are, in fact by Hanks.
The second story is taken directly from the final Big Red McLane tale with the captions rewritten and the faces re-rendered (possibly by another hand).
But the first story really had me stumped, so many of the compositions are un-Hanksian but ultimately tiny details such as hair-rendering, crowd-rendering , and big details like, yes, anatomy have made me change my mind.
I knew that sooner or later it would happen: the undiscovered Fletcher Hanks has been discovered.
(via)
- December 29, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the craft | Jenny and Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit doll
Well, who’s this adorable little gentleman? Why, it’s Cannibal Fuckface, star of Johnny Ryan’s gruesomely good action comic Prison Pit. This felt doll version of the blood-soaked bruiser was constructed by Ryan’s wife Jenny, and here he hangs on the Christmas tree, making the season bright. Alas, with Prison Pit, Vol. 2, on the way this summer, his troubles are far from out of sight.
- December 29, 2009 @ 08:14 AM by Sean T. Collins
Erika Moen’s webcomic DAR comes to a close today
From the final installment of "DAR," by Erika Moen
Cartoonist Erika Moen said farewell today to her long-running webcomic journal DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary.
Launched in late 2003, DAR chronicled Moen’s life from a 20-year-old college sophomore to her struggles with depression and sexual identity to her emergence as a professional cartoonist. “Oh, and I guess there were some dick ‘n’ fart jokes in there, too,” Moen wrote earlier this month.
“I’m extremely grateful for the wonderful opportunities and experiences and connections that have come into my life because of this ridiculous comic,” she said. “After six years, I feel emotionally and mentally ready to move on.”
A second DAR print collection will be released in January.
- December 29, 2009 @ 07:42 AM by Kevin Melrose
A roundup of best-of-the-year (and decade) pieces
Bone: Out From Boneville
• Canadian retail chain Indigo Books & Music names Jeff Smith’s Bone: Out From Boneville and Jeff Kinney’s hybrid Diary of a Wimpy Kid among its 75 best books of the decade (selected according to impact and popularity). The two titles appear in the young-adult fiction category, alongside such works as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Amber Spyglass and Twilight.
• Kevin Coffey of the Omaha, Nebraska, World-Leader selects his comics of the decade (scroll down), including Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting’s Captain America: The Death of Captain America, Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham’s Fables, and Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard’s The Walking Dead.
• Writer and editor Jason Thompson lists Junko Mizuno’s Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu and Susumu Yamashita’s Red Snow among his Top 10 manga of 2009.
• The contributors to Living Between Wednesdays select the best Marvel comics of the year. Among them, Sean McKeever and David Baldeon’s Nomad: Girl Without a World, and Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca’s The Invincible Iron Man.
• Tom Spurgeon continues his holiday interview series with a discussion with critic Jeet Heer about Chester Brown’s Louis Riel.
• At the Forbidden Planet International blog, illustrator Simon Gurr talks about his favorite comics of 2009.
• At Den of Geek, James Hunt looks back at the year in comics.
- December 29, 2009 @ 07:10 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim: Indy Comic Book Week Planners
Indy Comic Book Week
As you may have heard, Diamond’s not shipping comics this week. Hopefully you may have also heard that some independent creators banded together to help fill the void this week with Indy Comic Book Week (ICBW). As defined at the website: “Diamond Comic Distributors announced they will not ship any new comics for the last week of December. This company is the primary distributor of comic books in North America. What some would call a sad week without our favorite mainstream titles, we are calling an opportunity. This vacancy allows independent and small press comic book creators to claim this week as their own.
We challenge writers and artists to self publish new material for this week, and offer it to their local stores. We ask for retailers to take this as an opportunity to showcase local independent talent on the new release shelves. We encourage fans to break from their buying habits and try something new.”
I contacted the planners of the effort and did an email interview with all of them.
Prior to the discussion, here is a brief bio for each planner.
- December 28, 2009 @ 02:05 PM by Tim O'Shea
Strangeways – Winter Solstice (3)
Merry post-Christmas, everybody! Busy weeks here at the Maxwell ranch. Trying to write while the kids pound on their new discombobulators and aim their transmogrifiers at the family dog in an effort to make him “even cooler”. It’s kinda distracting.
Here’s part 3 of the STRANGEWAYS Christmas special. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is right here. Looks like Part 4 will drop this Wednesday, no matter how hard I try to wrap it up today.
–
The stag was no longer merely glowing, but blazing now. Golden light poured from its hide, not reflected from the dying sun but a sun in and of itself. Collins might have marveled at the sight of it, but there was no room for marvel in his heart now. It was something that hovered between love and lust and survival, a need without a name. And all of that was focused on the stag now, keeping only two steps ahead of the ravening hounds at his heels.
Though now they were less hounds than they were swarming clouds, the stormfront whipped by winds and chill with licks of greenish lightning raking and twisting, illuminating teeth and jaws in their afterlight. Their howls were now the howls of the gale through the trees, their snapping teeth was the seething rain and driving snow, their coats sooty black as the depth of the darkest and longest night of the year.
- December 28, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Growing Up Heroes: A symphony of plastic masks and superhero Underoos
from Growing Up Heroes
My earliest Halloween memories involve a Superman costume and a Batman costume my brother and I, respectively, wore one year. I kept the costume for years after that, wearing it around the house as long as it would fit, then eventually passing it down to my youngest brother. I had one of those cheap plastic Batman masks that obscured my vision and was probably some sort of fire hazard, while my brother got to go maskless … because unlike the kid in the above picture, we knew Superman didn’t wear a mask.
Ah, memories … if you have similar ones, you may enjoy checking out Growing Up Heroes, a blog that features kids dressed as various superheroes between 1960 and 1990. Everyone from Batman, Spider-Man and the Hulk to various Star Wars and Star Trek characters are represented, as are various costumes, shirts and, of course, Underoos.
- December 28, 2009 @ 12:30 PM by JK Parkin
Comics Cavalcade: Holiday leftovers
The Little Fir Tree by Walt Kelly
- December 28, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Indy Comic Book Week preview: Cownt Tales
Here’s another Indy Comic Book Week preview for you, this one for a comic written by our own Michael May. Here’s his pitch:
Cownt Tales
There are stories on the farm to make you shiver. Tales too terrible to tell (though we’re gonna tell them anyway). Legends that the livestock only have the courage to share with one another in whispered whinnies and hushed honks. Histories of the Horned Horror who stalks through corn to feed on living blood! He is the Teated Terror. The Uddered Upir. The Blood-sucking Bovine. The Nutritious Nosferatu. Fear the vampire cow. Fear… the Cownt!
Cownt Tales is a one-shot comic written by Michael May and illustrated by Gavin Spence, Friends of Lulu Award-Winner Paul Taylor (Wapsi Square), and LucasFilm artist Jessica Hickman. Each artist illustrates a different story revealing the Cownt’s horrifying origin, what the heck’s up with that udder, and his first encounter with a lactose-intolerant, farm-girl vampire-hunter named Penny. There’s a reason that another word for Blood is Humor. That reason is the Cownt.
Check out a preview and where to buy it after the jump.
If you have a comic book that will be in some shops on Wednesday and would like to send us a few pages as a preview, send me an email (quickly, of course … Wednesday is almost here). Be sure to include all the pertinent information, like price and where people can buy it.
- December 28, 2009 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Cool things to bookmark: What Things Do
From Crane's 'Shortcut'
What if three really talented alt-cartoonists — let’s say for the sake of argument: Jordan Crane, Ted May and Sammy Harkham — decided to make a kick-ass site where they posted their comics on a regular basis? Well, thankfully, we don’t have to wonder anymore as the site — What Things Do — is up and running.
(via)
- December 28, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Indy Comic Book Week preview: Omnitarium
Omnitarium
Jamie Gambell, writer of the four-issue horror mini series, Omnitarium, sent us word that issue one of the series is being released in conjunction with Indy Comic Book Week.
With art by J.C. Grande, Omnitarium is “a black and white period tale, set in a Victorian prison in which a long-dead black magician is attempting to return to our world using the misery of condemned souls,” Gambell said.
Check out a preview of the first five pages after the jump.
If you have a comic book that will be in some shops on Wednesday and would like to send us a few pages as a preview, send me an email (quickly, of course … Wednesday is almost here). Be sure to include all the pertinent information, like price and where people can buy it.
- December 28, 2009 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Chris Ware originals
Ware's original cover for Acme #17
Looking for something to cleanse the palate after all that ham and Christmas cookies? How about this: A rather lengthy and impressive collection of original art by Chris Ware, courtesy of the Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago. Just the thing to use all that money you got from your aunt on.
- December 28, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Win a copy of Hope Larson’s new book
Mercury by Hope Larson
It’s not out until April, but you can get your hot little hands on Hope Larson’s upcoming graphic novel Mercury in a matter of days! At her LiveJournal, Larson has announced a contest for eager readers to win a copy of the book. In keeping with what I think is the book’s storyline, all you have to do is email her or post a comment on the contest LJ entry with a story about what your life would have been like in 1859. The deadline for entries is January 4th, so flex those fiction muscles! (Unless you actually remember your past life in 1859, in which case get your autobio on.)
- December 28, 2009 @ 09:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
Robot 6′s holiday haul
The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics
The holidays are a time for family, food, fun and, of course, the spirit of giving. I thought I’d check in with the members of the Robot 6 crew to see what comic-related gifts they received this year, along with any they gave as presents. Feel free to share anything comic-related you gave or got this year as well.
Tom Bondurant: I got The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics (Abrams Comicarts), selected and edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly. A good bit of Carl Barks Duck work, from what I can tell. My parents gave it to me.
- December 28, 2009 @ 08:54 AM by JK Parkin
Does this mean David Gabriel gets to boss around Nick Fury?
Avengers identification cards
The big news we can take from the Comic Book Resources preview isn’t that Marvel’s Origins of Siege contains a 2010 calendar or retellings of the backstories of Spider-Man and Iron Man.
No, it’s that David Gabriel, senior vice president of sales and circulation publishing, apparently is an expert on matters of national security and foreign policy … at least in the Marvel Universe. That’s according to the Avengers priority identification cards — collect ‘em all! — which bear Gabriel’s signature as “director of national security.” I’m not sure whether that’s the MU equivalent of national security advisor or director of national intelligence, but it sounds pretty impressive.
- December 28, 2009 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose